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It doesn’t matter what color is the food you eat if you end up pale – and dead.
The lesson here is clear: Colorful food may not necessarily provide you a rainbow of nutrients – vitamins, minerals, and the other god stuff.
On the contrary, they may be a deadly deli platter.
Thus, the Food and Drug Administration has warned the public against processed food products found positive for rhodamine-B, a cancer-causing substance found in coloring dye.
In an advisory posted on its website last week, the FDA said three of 34 food product samples it tested for non-permissible colorants were found positive for rhodamine-B.

Rhodamine-B is a fluorescent dye used as a tracer in water and air-flow studies, and in molecular and cell biology studies. It manifests itself as a red to violet powder. It has been shown to be carcinogenic in mammalian models.
The FDA said the samples it tested were taken from ambulant vendors, public markets, groceries and supermarkets in the National Capital Region and Central Visayas.
“Most of the samples were unregistered and noncompliant with food product labeling standards,” acting FDA Director General Kenneth Hartigan Go said in the advisory.
Some of the products were icing candy from Cebu Crown Grocery, red gulaman from the Carbon Public Market and shrimp paste (labeled 7C’s) from Robinson’s Grocery in Talisay, Cebu.
“The food processors of the three products are in violation of the FDA Act of 2009 (Republic Act 9711) and the Consumer Act of the Philippines (RA 7394) on the adulteration of processed food,” Go said.
He said the FDA Act of 2009 requires all locally manufactured and imported processed food products to be registered with the regulatory agency..
The DFA chief stressed: “This requirement is in addition to the permits issued by the local government units and other government agencies.”
Five other products that the FDA tested, meanwhile, needed further confirmatory tests for the presence of NPC Sudan.
Industrial grade Sudan dye is not permitted for use in food because it is toxic, carcinogenic, and likely contains metals like mercury and arsenic. Sudan dyes are used in shoe and floor polish, solvents, oils, waxes, and petrol.